EPA Report: Most Drinking Water Systems Meet Health-Based Standards

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a new annual report showing that 94 percent of American water systems reported no violations of health-based drinking water standards.

The study, titled "Providing Safe Drinking Water in America: l998 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report," provides compliance data on public water systems in the United States. Based on information reported by states to EPA's computer-based tracking system, the report also shows that 84 percent of all violations were of monitoring and reporting requirements--mostly at small systems serving 3300 or fewer people.

The report also describes steps EPA is taking to ensure the public's right to know about the safety of their drinking water. The full text of the report is available at: es.epa.gov/oeca/main/fedgov/compliance/pws98.pdf.